Hi, Tine and everyone, I can't prescribe ways of making rejection less painful in tango. I can only aspire to bring some awareness. It is important that each person decides for himself/herself how to use any information on this subject. Those who truly want to avoid causing unnecessary pain, will develop their own strategies and their own unique styles of communication.
We can look at what hurts people in tango as dance rejection. It could be many things - not being asked, not being asked by people who used to ask, not being asked by specific people one wants to dance with, verbally and non-verbally saying "no", avoiding to the point of a showing clear intention not to dance with a person, etc. The important thing to remember is that we do not always know what might trigger the other person. In regard to rejection in tango, I like looking at the proper boundaries of each situation. There are things that we can control and things that we cannot. It is helpful to know that difference within the unique context of each situation. If one can say a polite and warm hello instead of dancing and keep moving, it is one thing. If one is cornered into a verbal exchange and has to say "no", that is a completely different situation. The other thing to look at is values. I know several women that continue to dance with men they hate dancing with. When asked why they do so, the answer is the same from all of them - they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. To these women, the pain of hurting someone's feelings is greater than the pain of dancing with them. This is important to know. It is about what each person values. This touches on the very core of who the person is. I think that how good a person is with himself/herself also determines how graceful and less painful their rejection can be. I like to make a distinction between who the people are vs. their behavior/conduct. In tango, as in all relationships (I hate this word), it is much better to reject a person's dancing, but not the person. This requires charm. Rejection is unavoidable. What makes a difference is how it is delivered. If you remember that each grown up person is just a kid in a big body, you will know how to make your choices in a kinder way. My very best regards, Nina At 09:01 AM 9/29/2008, you wrote: >Hi Nina, >Could you elaborate to the list on the ways to make rejection less >painful in tango? >Thank you >Tine > >On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Nina Pesochinsky ><<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Hello, everyone, > >I received a few private replies arguing that "rejection in tango is >OK, just like anything else in life". To set things straight - just >because it exists, it does not make it acceptable or OK. > >Naomi Eisenberger, PhD, has done a lot of research in the area of >social rejection. She used electroencephalogram (QEEG) scans to map >the brain's response to rejection. Her research has shown that >social rejection lights up the same parts of the brain as physical >pain. He original work was her dissertation in 1996 and she has >published extensively since then on this topic. If you have access >to an academic online library, you should be able to access her >publications fairly easily. Very elegant research. > >There is a reason why I am hooking into this subject for >tango. There are ways to handle things without provoking the >feelings of social rejection in people. There are also remedies to >make things better should painful social interaction occur. > >We can't control what might trigger someone else, but we can avoid >inflicting pain on others if we are aware of what, generally, might >do that. Awareness is important. > >Best, > >Nina > >_______________________________________________ >Tango-L mailing list ><mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l > _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
